Ive driven the road many times with the present job but not had to do it each day, major a road between two towns. Basic office hours but flexible enough I could start/finish either side traffic peaks.

The practicalities are covered its the lifestyle issue thats a concern.

I did 70 miles, 1.5 hr for about 9 months and it wasn't pleasant at all. It's very surprising how knackering sitting in a car 3 hrs a day can be. I found the general fatigue worse than when I was being woken several times a night when my son was born!

I would see if you could negotiate at least 1 day a week working from home. If the job was really ace, I would take it but be open to the possibility of needing to move once you have settled in and decided that's where you want to work.

My office is approx 55 miles by road from home, but as I'm often working from clients offices up and down the country the predictable 1 hour commute is usually a nice change

That's a fair old trek - I do 35 miles each way and that's really bad at the mo because of roadworks (Nottingham council decided to extend the tram and widen teh A453 at the same time) and can take up to 2 hours at the mo. If I'm honest, its starting to break me a bit.

I spent 18 months seconded to a clien in London. I had to be there three days a week as a minimum and the travel by train from home to London wore thin really quickly. I was surprised how tired I was.

For me, 120 miles a day wouldn't be sustainable especially as it doesn't take much for our road system to break.

I'd be surprised if you didn't end up spending an average of 3 hrs+ a day just sat in a car...
If you can hack the time spent in the car, being away from family/getting home late and find the work interesting and rewarding then go for it, but I've done the whole working a long way away thing and its not for me...
staying within 20 miles of home from now on if I can...

I do about 50 miles each way from Kingston to Dartford. It's fine really I'd be doing about 50mins - 1 hour wherever so I'm used to it. Bit of spotify radio and I'm happy as Larry. 61 miles could be less than an hour which seems alright to me.

Depends on the job I suppose, I like mine so the journey isn't one where the destination is filling me with dread.

One other thing is I worked out a deal where I work from home when I want, I won't work for any "you have to be here" firms again. Oddly enough I tend to come in anyway.

As has been said, even though there not keen on home working, I would push for 1 day from home. They may have given you the stock response, but if they want you enough perhaps you should push them on it. Tell them you love the role and if it was 30 miles closer it would be a no brainer, but you are concerned about 3+ hrs a day commuting (hopefully you haven't told them you can do it in just over an hour each way!) impacting heavily on life with family / partner / goldfish, and 1 day a week where you're not leaving at crack of dawn and getting home late would tip the balance to make it more bearable.

I have a 45 mile / 1hr 15 mins each way commute that would drive me mad if I had to do it 5 days a week. Business owners weren't keen on me working from home a day a week (they're Italian, and it isn't really something they do there apparently), but I made it a condition of acceptance of the job. Turns out I probably do the commute 3 times a week on average, and if I haven't done it for a while I perversely look forward to it as its some time alone with 6 music for company. Been doing it a yr and a half now and not going mad yet. Winters are noticeably harder though.

Never again! For 10 years I commuted 60 miles each way down the M40 from Oxfordshire to Greenford in London. Then we relocated and I now cycle 10 miles instead.

If needs must, then by all means. It is perfectly doable on good roads. Journey time is what matters. It will be three hours a day, 600 miles a week. See if you can work from home midweek to break it up.

I planned and bought a VW Vento 1.9 TDI as it was the cheapest car with the most economical engine. It cost about 20p/mile all in (and that is everything including capital repayment). I kept a spreadsheet of statistics for every journey. Sad I know

Audiobooks are your friend. There is only so much Five Live you can listen to.

I've done 40 miles each way for the last 7 years. Takes about 1 hour with no delays. It's perfectly doable but you have to accept the downsides and be a very patient driver.

However in the last year its started to get to be for a few reasons.

Unpredicatbility - It used to be a rare occurence that it took longer than 1h10. That was before Nottingham decided to dig the entire place up and the M1 roadworks started at J28. Now one little issue like a car broken down in the roadworks and it will take 2hrs.
Cost - £300 a month on petrol isn't nice. I could find an infinite number of things I'd rather do with the money. I have a company car so don't directly pay the other costs but it's still a very expensive way to own a car.
Deadlines - I now have to be back home by 6.30 at the latest to pick the kids up from Nursery 3 days a week. The unpredicatability of the traffic means I have to leave at 4.30 to guarantee it and every journey on those days has changed from relaxing downtime with some podcasts to a stressfull battle through traffic.

So my advice - Do it if your are young free and single and can relax in the car. Don't do it if you have commitments

I spend 75% of my time away from base office and often spend long periods of time at clients al owa the shop.

I think 60mi e/w is doable depending largely on the route type and predictability of traffic when you will be travelling. It can take me 4hrs to do a 110mi round trip to one client or 3hrs to do a 200mi round trip to another. The 'trafficky' one is very stressful and not something I would want to do long term, escpecially if I had committments at home.

Google maps traffic is quite reliable these days. Try googling the route every rush hour for a week and see how long it would take with the traffic.

An hour a day may be OK. And you may say you were going to work flexitime to avoid rush hour but it's the expectional circumstances that make it a pain. Say you like to be home early on a Friday but that means the peak of the traffic.

Also consider the social aspects. Work socials will become a pain since you can't get a taxi home or share lifts. Evening events mean hanging around at work for hours between the end of the day and the event. A drink after work is almost impossible.

Nothing insumountable but for me to sign up again it would have to be a bit of a dream job or a short term option with the intention to open up some doors but then leave.

I do 52 miles. I'm lucky & work shifts & head North out of London, so the traffic is always going the other way. Sometimes I ride it,car in ,bike home , bike in, car home.
Tbh it looks horrible sitting in the queue at the end of the A1M everyday...so it depends on where your commute is....Maybe your new employers would consider letting you start early ( a few on days do here)to avoid traffic?
Best of luck to you.

My new (since Feb this year) commute is 55 miles each way, 99% of the time it's circa 1h 10min.

I chose this job because it means I live exactly where I want to live so the longish commute is worth it.

Fortunately, as well, my route is A/B roads for 30 miles then empty dual carriage / motorway for 20 miles.

I live in Cardigan (on the coast) and work just off exit 47 on the M4 so it's never busy except bank holidays but then I'm off too!

The cost is a killer though. I get a car allowance but no fuel. Mine's a 3ltr V6 turbo diesel auto and I had to weigh up costs v's an 'easy' drive. Easy drive wins for me! And I'm near Brechfa going home or add 10 miles and have Afan...

Might consider a spritely petrol supermini alternative or just use my motorbike.

I used to commute from near Guildford into Croydon every day, mostly on A3 and M25, total of 128 miles round trip, stuck it for 2.5 years, but it is soul destroying, some days it would be 3.5 hours of travel, but 4.5-5 often, 5 hours travelling to do 7 hours work is daft. Plus i ended up having to take off work the friday before bank holiday weekends each time due to the fact that the M25 would just be a nightmare and things like that.

Now live in Norfolk and only concern is getting stuck behind a tractor and it is so much nicer!!

I commute from Bradford to Trafford Park, Manchester everyday (47 miles).
Luckily I need to be at work for 5:15am ish so it only takes about 45-50mins.
Wouldn't even consider it if I worked 'office hours' as the same journey could take over 2 hours at rush hour...

Been doing 45 miles each way for over four years and I am well over it. Lots of factors - big one for me is hours, was lucky enough to have a half seven start until this year so missed the worse of the traffic but now I'm on 9-17:30 and that extra ten minutes each way grates like a b'stard. Would help if I enjoyed the job but I am ovr it.

Also over the fuel costs, even with the little Corsa turbo diesel, driving steady it's still knocking on sixty quid a week. Finding stuff to listen to is also an issue, lucky enough to enjoy Chris Evans on the way in but a serial station switcher on the way back, 'specially when there's something like the Dauphine on and you want to avoid results. It can be made useful if you want to learn a language or something - picked up pidgin Italian for our honeymoon, for example. If you've got time and a big enough car, you can fit cycling in - I park say twelve or fifteen miles from work and cycle the rest sometimes. Downside to that is you are out of the house forhooooouuuurrrs...

In summary, it can be done - would do it again for the right job, but given the choice I'd really rather not.